The Welsh Government has been ordered to apologise for a “lack of transparency” after failing to declare the fact one members of a body overseeing their work was a prominent Labour politician.
The Regulatory Board for Wales which was originally set up by climate change minister Julie James to advise her on how her civil servants were regulating state-supported housing associations which cater for poorer people and how those housing associations were doing.
A recent investigation by the Commissioner for Public Appointments found that the Welsh Government had failed to publish the “significant political activity” of one of the board’s members. It is understood that the Labour leader of Newport Council Jane Mudd is the person referenced in a report by the Commissioner as not having her political activity declared. According to the report, the Welsh Government did publish her appointment when she was originally appointed - but failed to provide any public declaration to the board.
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The report stated that “there was a lack of transparency by the Welsh Government in regard to these reappointments which were made by ministers but were not publicly announced”. It added that the reason given by the Welsh Government for not publishing is that there were “resource constraints” and that the Welsh Government stated that “having decided not to use its limited resources to send reappointment letters, the administrative procedures that normally follow to comply with the transparency provisions in the Code were not discharged.”
The Commissioner also criticised the Welsh Government for “a confusing account of the status of the reappointments during the course of his investigation” adding that a “decision was made to not undertake the usual conflicts of interest or due diligence checks in advance of the reappointments, due again to resource constraints”. Criticisms over a lack of transparency continued with the Commission saying there was an “opacity around these reappointments”
The recommendations of the investigation is that the Welsh Government must apologise in writing within ten working days to the complainant (who was previously the chair of the board who raised concerns over the appointment process). This apology should be “for the lack of transparency in relation to the decision to reappoint Board members and for its poor handling of this complaint.”
The Commissioner recommends that the “Welsh Government consider the lessons learned”, urges all parties to consider how to build robust governance and constructive working relationships with each other and mitigate the risk of this case reoccurring.
WalesOnline approached Jane Mudd about the report and she declined to comment. When we approached the Welsh Government, a spokeswoman said: “We are considering the report.”
The Board itself is no longer running. In July 2023 the Welsh minister of climate change, Ms James, "dissolved" the Regulatory Board for Wales - which she herself originally set up without notice.
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